Marty's Flying Vegan Review

A review of some of the (past) vegetarian and (now) exclusively vegan meals I've had while traveling around the country as a Charter Pilot.
If you enjoy my reviews, acerbic wit or just think I'm a damn good looking guy please sign up as a follower or click on the RSS feed to subscribe. Thanks!.

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Tuesday, April 28, 2015

I have a soft spot for young vegans. I have an even softer spot for young vegan activists. This young man has taken it even further by getting on the radio and sending the vegan message out there. My hat is off to him. It was an honor to meet him last month after the Veggie Pride Parade in NYC.

But ...

I got this plea from his mom the other day. Throw a few bucks his way just because. The family pays just about $800 a month for his radio time and there are far and few monthly donors they can count on. Just think, if you click on his "donate" button and contribute only $5, you can buy him about a minute and a half of air time.

Click on his webpage and then click on the donate button. He's the future. I hope.

Susan Faye Schindler
Apr 28th, 12:20pm
Only out of desperation am I asking for help. My son's 2yr vegan radio show will end this week, before getting to confirmed guests like GP Dr. Jill Stein & NJ Sen. Cory Booker, due to lack of financial support. The fundraisers have all failed.
Would you please promote his show and ask for contributions of any size thru his PayPal?
#TheKevinStormShowwww.thekevinstorrmshow.com

I want to stress that it's a 12 month loan and you can jump in for as little as five dollars. That means after the loan is funded you get 12 monthly payments through paypal. (Yes, it's interest free but we're friends, right?)

Of course, if you have oodles of cash laying around more is always appreciated but we have a limited time to get 15 people (12 more as of this writing), to move the loan from its "private" status to "public".

Please click on the link because if you use the link the funds are matched!

Monday, December 8, 2014

Hi everyone. I just wanted to give you a quick update.

Marty's Vegan Fast Food will be vending for two more weeks this holiday season.

We're in Brooklyn and LIC, NY. If you haven't eaten our "fast food" yet, you're in for a surprise. As you know I don't use the word "awesome" too often, (well, it IS appropriate when you pull two matching socks out of the drawer!!), but my food is truly awesome.

Here's the press release with the addresses and times. If you say you saw this blog post in the next two weeks, we'll give you the burger for a buck special. Buy any entree, (kale salad or sandwich), chips and a drink and we'll give you a second burger for a buck.

FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brooklyn, NY - Marty’s
Vegan Fast Food is pleased to serve its menu of delicious vegan burgers,
cheesesteaks and more at 2 locations in New York City, this holiday season:
Brooklyn Pop-Up Holiday Market in Bushwick and LIC Flea & Food Indoor
Holiday Market in Long Island City.

Shopping for gifts can work
up any appetite. Marty’s delivers an on-the-go vegan dining experience to local
events for all to enjoy. Classic fast food with a meat-free, plant-based twist,
the menu features 2 burger options, a vegan spin on a Philly cheesesteak and a
gluten-free Crabby Patty. There are sides, combos and a NEW Kids’ Meal with
chips and an organic drink.

After successful runs at The
NYC Vegetarian Food Festival, The Seed Experience and a 2-month residency at
Brooklyn Night Bazaar, Marty’s has caught the attention of local area bloggers
and vegan media personalities, including ChicVegan.com, the Big Fat Vegan Radio
podcast and Main Street Vegan on Unity FM.

Business owner, Marty
Krutolow shares “Our menu has taken years to develop. Our goal is to continue to
prove our concept of a vegan fast food chain in the future.”

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

You may have been wondering about the radio silence. Well, I've moved out of the aviating arena and no longer fly the 1% around to their 3rd or 4th homes. Yes I miss a night or two in Aspen or a quick family visit at LAX but there really isn't much of a legacy when it's all said and done.

I've also been having some back issues and lifting heavy bags into a Hawker under pressure of an antsy passenger was probably not a good idea. At least according to my doctors.

I've been working on making a difference. I've started up a vegan fast food company and recently opened the first test business of Marty's Vegan Fast Food, (which for now you can find at www.veganfastfoodny.com, Facebook/veganfastfoodny and @veganfastfoodny), and we're selling our food at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar, a music venue in Brooklyn, NY located on the Green-point/Williamsburg border at:
165 Banker Street, Brooklyn, NY.
(www.bkbazaar.com).

Come on by and say hello Friday and Saturday nights between 7pm and 1am. Eat. Enjoy.

In the meantime I'll be posting when I travel or when I find something worth posting about. The blog is napping, not dead.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

My brother works in Glendale and had one more day at the office before vacation. His company had some good times at the Golden Brewery and since they have specific items marked as vegan or non-vegan, (some have the V/NV marked since they serve both a vegan and non-vegan option ... more on this later), thought this would be an ideal place for lunch.

Located next to the train tracks in a light industrial area, you drive by a few large buildings where the brewery and bottling operations are and then come to the entrance.

There is an open area for dogs,

(love it), and an outside porch, (pretty substantial with TVs all over broadcasting the world cup at the time), and a cavernous interior with a bar and an "order here" counter.

You can't really see it very well but the Baked Mac N Cheese and the Bavarian Pretzel have a "V/NV" next to them indicating, well, you know what they indicate.

I'm still not sure how that works as after we ordered we were given a number on a stand, (you can see them on the picture of the bar above), for the runners to bring the food but they also seemed to have wait service. Never got the chance to figure that out.

I am quietly thrilled that the items are so well marked. You can see the V or NV next to the menu items, some even have both. No tiny asterisks, no codes, no vegetarian, just vegan ... or not. To me it means they have their shi, uh, act together. I order the Jackfruit tacos, which are vegan and I'm anxious to try jackfruit because, yes, jackfruit still terrifies me as a cooking ingredient, the vegan mac n cheeze, and the house-made vegan burger. Everyone else orders their cheese, crab and what have you.

All the beer is vegan. This per the counter person and the manager.

The runner comes with the food and here's what mine looks like:

I'm intrigued because in NY it seems the word tacos connotes a crispy, preformed, fried, corn tortilla shell and everyplace else it means a soft white flour (or corn) open faced tortilla. I enjoyed the burritos except that the amount of filling far exceeded the size of the burrito ... not a complaint at all but just saying, there was a lot of dripping and finger licking. I think jackfruit is an interesting thing to use in a recipe but not sure it comes close to the pulled pork it aims to emulate. Still, not a bad dish.

I'm munching on these perfectly cooked fries eyeing the Mac.

The Mac 'N' Cheese was gorgeous ... a full bowl with a nicely browned crust of breadcrumbs and some shredded fake meat. I took a bite and it was absolutely delicious. One of the best I can remember eating. Another heavenly bite and anotheeeeeeerrrrrr ... hmmm ... ah, what's this? What kind of fake meat is this? Hmm ... hey brother (the omnivore), what is this? Pork? Pork. You think it's pork? Looks like pork. Shreds like pork. Ahhh, this is not good.

My wife, who is very adept at seeing my facial color change, took the Mac back to the young lady at the counter. She returned with the bad news. It was the non-vegan rendition. But they were making another vegan one for me. Well, whoopdy doo. But here's the kicker ... the young lady at the counter, according to my wife, said I must not have said "vegan". Really? Me? The 5 year vegan. Nooooo, I said vegan for every dish I ordered. (I later looked at the check a little closer and it just said Mac N Cheese so I suppose, if everything in life was my fault, I could have read over the check when I signed it and re-stated and re-questioned the order). So now, instead of apologizing and making it right I was accused of messing up my own order. Ah, Gen X, or Y or whatever. Now I'm really not happy.

But, a manager appeared a moment later, card in hand, profusely apologizing. Her name was Lauren and I really felt as though she cared. She asked what she could do to make it right, acknowledging that feeding meat to a vegan could never be made right. I handed her the bill. A few minutes later she came back saying the entire charge for lunch was being credited back to my card. It was, under the circumstances, the right thing to do. She also pointed out the writing on her card, basically, the next time we came back, the first round would be on her. Also, vowing to examine the incident to figure out what happened and put a procedure into place was the most encouraging thing to come out of the day. I gave the card to my brother and I hope when he treats a few of his friends to a round, on Lauren, he orders a vegan dish in memory of that nameless pig.

So how do I feel? Sad, disheartened, disappointed, let down, (need I pull out Rogets?), nauseous? Nope, not nauseous. I've eaten plenty of meat in my life and unless it's going to make me physically sick I'm not going to hurl. I am an ethical vegan and I know this has, (read my Blockheads review of a few years ago when they fed me chicken), and probably will happen no matter how many "Is this the vegan one?"s or "This is the one with the tofu sour cream, right?'s I say. Now I am thinking; if we make a huge todo over it is that a good thing or is that a vote for the establishment to get rid of the vegan options and the pain in the ass vegans all together. It cost them about $150 dollars for that mistake. Perhaps with gratitude for the way Lauren handled the mistake we come out ahead.

But, the vegan Mac, not so good ... and not compared to the other Mac, just a half filled bowl, no crust, fake orange color, and didn't look that appetizing. It tasted bland and flat.

The burger was pretty good. I know this is like, "Aside from THAT Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play," but life goes on. And being a vegan in a non vegan world this is to be expected from time to time. Just a fact of (at least my) vegan life. The bun was excellent, perfect crust and soft crumb. The flavor and toppings all worked together but as in most veggie burgers, and this one being made of quinoa, crumbled and squashed.

Grabbing a coffee to end the meal, and interesting phenomena occured. There was no soy cream, (a rarity to have any non dairy "cream", and soy creamer DOES have a nicer richer mouthfeel than any non dairy milk I'm usually offered), or non dairy milk of any kind to be found. Hmm. A place that attracts vegans and no milk alternative. Wonders.

Lauren made it right by bringing over some vegan ice cream. My mom used to do this with her coffee so reminiscing about days gone by, (and lives gone by), I enjoyed the coffee and left with a feeling of, "What was this all about?"

Would I go back again? If my brother was working and I was in LA and he had an hour for lunch, yes. With all of the other vegan options out here ... probably wouldn't make my top 10 list ... especially since Kevin's Vinh Loi Tofu is within driving distance and that is my #1 go to place out here and I could probably eat there every day and not get tired of it. (I did twice and then stopped on the way to LAX for our go home meal).

Now for a few days of relaxation near Carpinteria, to forget life's woes, stresses and the poor pig.

Monday, June 9, 2014

I love when a place goes out of its way to cater to us vegans. Very much appreciated. So the first time I ate here I got some grilled veggie sandwich with Balsamic vinegar and vegan cheese. I casually inquired about the cheese and was shown a package of Rice Cheese. I guess they finally made rice cheese vegan but as I checked the package there it was, first ingredient, casein.

Now this normally pisses me off but reigning in my ire I showed the chef the offending ingredient and then showed the manager. Both vowed that the cheese was vegan and needed a bit of education to convince them. Then they told me they got a different cheese in the order and weren't aware it wasn't vegan. OOOOOkkkkkkkay.

The sandwich was delicious, crusty bread with a moist crumb, perfect. The grilled veggies were, well, grilled veggies. The sandwiches were a bit burnt but what's a little char amongst friends. It was still good.

While I'm waiting there the owner calls back and profusely apologizes for the error...because not only might someone be ethically opposed to eating cow secretions but it might be a medical issues. OK, he tells me there is going to be a correction. I tell him about Daiya, he seems to write it down. I tell him it's available in food size packages. He seems to be writing it all down. Again he apologizes.

The second time I went there was during lunch and when I asked the young lady behind the counter to put the Balsamic Vinegar on the sandwich she said it couldn't be done. Weeeeeeell, I don't like the word "can't" and after some back and forth I suppose we settled on a "side" of BV. Still no vegan cheese.

The sandwich was once again pretty good. The BV made the flavor pop, as it's designed to do because otherwise we get the standard "grilled veggies for the vegans" food. This isn't 10 years ago.
Still, two visits and two hassles. I expect this from Joe's (what's a vegan?) Diner but not a place that has 10 vegan sandwiches listed.

Today is about 2 or 3 weeks after my initial "cheese" incident. I called and asked if the vegan cheese was in and was told it hadn't come in yet. (Huh?!) OK, now I'm pissed because either you lied to me once or twice but when I asked why someone couldn't just run down to Whole Foods and pick up some Daiya I was pretty much blown off. "Look, you guys are going to lose a customer here because I could be ordering 3 or 4 times a week," was met with, "OK."

Nice attitude guys. Don't do me any favors. I'd rather eat bodega fruit for lunch. I just hope you're not selling non vegan cheese to vegans because that would really suck.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

I haven't been doing much in the way of traveling lately for a variety of reasons and my venue of choice, (it's just too quick and easy), is to post a comment on Foursquare and send it out into the twitter-sphere and Facebook land. So if you haven't followed me on twitter I'm @veganpilotmarty
and on Facebook you can look up this blog's page.

I'm working on a food project and that is taking up a lot of time. Also, I'll be volunteering as an emcee once again at the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival so if you want to meet me that is a good opportunity to ... feed two birds with one scone ... so to speak.

Also, part of the food project's menu will be served there as I've worked out the details to sell VEGAN DRUMSTIX there ... Foodswings RIP and all that.

Now for the selfless promotion:

My 14 year old daughter is and has been a vegetarian for many years and although I often nudge her in the vegan direction, it's something I truly feel she has to find for herself. On her journey and also for a school project, (another scone for the birds here), she designed a website to inform people about factory farming. Please check it out, and if you have a few extra bucks in your pocket click on the contribute button and send the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary some green.

Check out this new vegan zine!

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About Me

55 years old and I've recently, (around June or so 2010), come to some decisions and have put up my tent smack dab in the middle of the Vegan camp. I still ponder such things as to how far to drill down into ingredient lists and the role that ancillary things to the animal industry such as belts and shoes play but for now I do the absolute best to order vegan dishes and of course still cook 100% Vegan. I won't throw out my non vegan clothes but will no longer purchase anything made primarily from an animal, (leather, wool, etc.).
I'm pondering a podcast just to throw out my opinion, (why not? Seems as if everyone else with one has a soapbox), on just such topics as veganism, diet, lifestyle, clothing, decision making process, resources, where we get the most bang for the buck, and other such musings. Stay tuned. I refuse to eat rabbit food and salad exclusively, (although find myself leaning towards Dr. Fuhrman and nutritarian meals more often than not. I travel as a charter pilot for a living so when this blog is almost an answer to those who can't fathom finding vegan food in restaurants.